Jessica Simpson Almost Needed Blood Transfusion After Tummy Tuck Complications
By Whitney Vasquez on February 4, 2020 at 12:25 PM EST
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Jessica Simpson went against doctor's orders by getting a tummy tuck and it almost cost the singer her life. The 39-year-old fashion mogul said despite her doctor urging her to reschedule the operation because of the condition of her liver from all the alcohol abuse, she went forward with the surgery. When she was unsatisfied with those results she scheduled another tummy tuck that left her in such bad shape that doctors were talking to her about possibly needing a blood transfusion. In her new memoir, "Open Book," Jessica Simpson is discussing the scary ordeal and opening up about the unhealthy views she used to have about her body.
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Revealing she scheduled a partial tummy tuck in July 2015 to celebrate turning 35, the Grammy winner said she felt she needed the operation because she “couldn’t bear” to look at herself without her clothes on. “The surgery wasn’t for weight loss,” she explained. “I weighed 107 pounds when I planned the surgery. I wanted to get rid of the stretch marks and loose skin left sagging from my back-to-back pregnancies." Jessica Simpson now has three children with her husband, Eric Johnson -- daughter Maxwell, 7, son Ace, 5, and daughter Birdie, 10 months.
Jessica Simpson says she was “so ashamed of my body at this point" that she "wouldn’t let Eric see me without a white T-shirt on." She wore the shirt everywhere and revealed, "I had sex with it on and even showered with it on. I couldn’t bear to look at myself.” After going forward with her tummy tuck plans, she got a worrisome call while on vacation in St. Barths from her doctor. “He was direct,” she remembered. “My plastic surgeon may have approved me for the surgery in two weeks, but he would not.”
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Her doctor was concerned about her liver levels and warned her that she needed to quit everything -- like pills and alcohol -- for "three months" or she “could die." Despite her doctor's worries, Jessica Simpson went forward with the surgery, but after the operation, she was still dissatisfied. "I still had loose skin that hung over my pants,” she wrote, according to Us Weekly. So she arranged for another tummy tuck and stopped drinking in order to prepare. The second surgery lasted two hours and she suffered major complications after. “It did not go well. I got an infection — colitis — and was vomiting so much I thought I was going to bust my sutures,” she revealed. “Doctors talked seriously about me needing a blood transfusion,” she added while revealing she stayed in the hospital for 9 whole days.
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While she was happy with the results the second time around, Jessica Simpson wants to make sure fans know that "plastic surgery does not cure what’s inside." She continued that following the surgery she "was still just as hard on myself once those stitches were out.” Jessica Simpson has remained sober since November 2017 after realizing that she was using alcohol and pills to numb the pain of being sexually abused as a child, another relation she reveals in her memoir. She's since dropped over 100 pounds and managed to keep it off after welcoming her third child with Eric Johnson in March 2019.
